Thiel and Boerne

Axel Prahl (Thiel)

Jan Josef Liefers (Boerne)

Detective chief inspector Frank Thiel and forensic medical examiner Dr. Karl Friedrich Boerne are the protagonists of the German television series Tatort Münster.

The fictitious detectives are portrayed by Axel Prahl and Jan Josef Liefers. The humorous detective series has been on air since 2002 and is produced for the German television channel WDR. Two episodes are produced per year. On November 25, 2012, the decennial anniversary was celebrated with the episode “Das Wunder von Wolbeck” ("The Wonder of Wolbeck"). Tatort Münster is part of the German television crime series Tatort, which has been running continuously since 1970.^[1]

Background

This house in Bonn was used as the setting for Thiel and Boerne's apartment building multiple times.

Casting, Production and Narration

Tatort Münster was developed by the screenwriters Stefan Cantz and Jan Hinter. The character of Professor Boerne was based on a renowned forensic examiner from the University of Münster. German actor Ulrich Noethen was offered the role in the beginning, but turned it down^[2]. Thus Jan Josef Liefers was offered the role. According to Liefers, he had already observed 13 autopsies.

Production takes place mostly in Cologne and the surrounding area for financial reasons, one being that the WDR production companies Colonia Media and Filmpool are located in Cologne. Only exterior shots are filmed in Münster on a regular basis. Production is sponsored by the organization Filmservice Münster.Land, which is part of Münster’s public relations office. The regional Münsterland e.V. association and the IHK (industry of trade and commerce) Nord-Westfalen are sponsors as well. A single episode of Tatort Münster has a budget of approximately 1.3 million euros.^[3]

The concept of perpetual present is a typical narrative feature. Perpetual present means that individual episodes are not connected in a chronological way; instead, each episode is set in the immediate present under similar conditions to the previous episode. This results in the absence of character development. For example, the son of Detective Thiel is 12 years old in the first episode, "Der dunkle Fleck", in 2002 and six years later in "Wolfsstunde" he has aged only one year. Furthermore, the character of Nadeshda Krusenstern had to wait more than ten years to finally receive her detective’s promotion, which is an unrealistically long period of time. Nevertheless, there is some procedural development. For example, Detective Thiel does not have a driver’s license in the beginning of the series and has to rely on others to give him a ride, but several episodes later he can be seen driving himself.

Ratings and Awards

On average, Tatort Münster achieves the highest audience ratings of all Tatort teams and even of all contemporary German television series. In 2011 and 2012, an average 11.58 million viewers watched the television films with Thiel and Boerne.

Several episodes with the detective duo achieved the highest ratings the German Tatort has had since 1992. The episode "Summ, Summ, Summ" aired on March 24, 2013, and attracted 12.99 million viewers and captured a market share of 34.1 percent.^[4] This record was broken on September 21, 2014, with the episode "Mord ist die beste Medizin", which reached 13.13 million viewers and a 36.7 percent share of the market.^[5] On November 8, 2015, a new record was set with "Schwanensee", which attracted 13.69 million viewers and was the most watched German television program of 2015. The episode following "Schwanensee" aired on May 31, 2015, and had more than 13 million viewers, as well. With a 37.2 percent market share, it took third place in the annual television ranking list. According to Mechthild Großmann, another star in the series, the regular cast of the Tatort Münster plays a big part in its success.

In 2011, Liefers and Prahl won the Goldene Kamera in the category of best crime team, based on audience choice. In 2012, the cast was nominated for the Grimme Preis in the "Entertainment/Special" category.

In 2003 Tatort Münster was awarded the Bobby. This is a prize from the Bundesvereinigung Lebenshilfe, which is awarded once a year to people who take a stand for the concerns of people with physical disabilities.^[6] Tatort Münster was chosen as a result of its humorous handling of the topic of differentness. The trenchant verbal exchanges between Christine Urspruch, who portrays a woman of small stature, and Jan Josef Liefers are considered to contribute greatly to the success of the series.

Characters

Frank Thiel

Detective Chief Inspector Frank Thiel (Axel Prahl) grew up in St. Pauli, a working-class district of Hamburg. He worked as a detective in Hamburg for several years before asking to be transferred to Münster. The reason for this decision was the declining health of his father, who lives in Münster, and the fact that his wife moved to New Zealand with their son. Frank Thiel has been the chief of the homicide division in Münster ever since. Nevertheless, his heart is still strongly attached to his hometown, Hamburg. This is portrayed by his clothing style and various possessions that show his devotion to the football team FC St. Pauli. Thiel tends to be uncommunicative and his methods are rather unconventional, but very meticulous. He rents an apartment in the building belonging to Medical Examiner Boerne. Together, they are a pair of opposites. While Boerne portrays the eloquent and stylish academic, Thiel represents the hardened and unsociable fast-food consumer, who can’t seem to find a better use for his free time than to ardently follow his football team. Thiel’s social inadequacies often provide an opportunity for ironic ridicule while conversing with Boerne.

Karl-Friedrich Boerne

Professor Dr. Karl-Friedrich Boerne (Jan Josef Liefers) comes from a very famous Westphalian family, many of his relatives being or having been reputable physicians. He is head of the institute of Forensic Medicine of the university hospital Münster. As such, he works together with Thiel to solve crimes, their approach being rather unconventional. The collaboration is almost inevitable, since Boerne generally interferes in the investigations even if he is not asked to.

As a character, Boerne is the opposite of Thiel. He is arrogant, vigorous and always has the final say. He doesn't admit to making any mistakes and considers himself a brilliant luminary. Besides his specialized qualifications he also holds skills outside his subject area. For example, he speaks fluent Russian, which even impresses his colleague Nadeshda, but is never explained. This is an insider joke, because Jan Josef Liefers comes from Dresden and acquired the language during his childhood. Since he is Thiel's landlord and both live in the same house, they sometimes cook together and talk about the current case. Boerne was married but his wife left him for her therapist, which is mentioned in the first episode, "Der dunkle Fleck". He is a member of the Corps Pomerania-Westphalia zu Münster, a fictitious fraternity to which his father also once belonged.

The real model for the role of Karl-Friedrich Boerne was professor Bernd Brinkmann, who was head of the Institute of Forensic Medicine in Münster from 1981 to 2007. Brinkman had become famous due to many spectacular cross-border cases, one of them being an expert witness in the Kachelmann trial.

Silke Haller

Christine Urspruch (Silke Haller)

Silke Haller, portrayed by actress Christine Urspruch, is the resolute deputy and closest colleague of professor Boerne in the Institute of Forensic Medicine in Münster. She takes Boerne's allusions to her height in her stride. Haller is very small and Boerne almost unexeptionally calls her “Alberich”, which refers to a dwarf in Wagner's story Rheingold. She nevertheless does not feel degraded, particularily because she knows that this is Boerne's way of showing his appreciation, which is explained in the very first episode. In the episode "Feierstunde", Boerne saves Haller's job by soliciting research funds.

Nadeshda Krusenstern

Nadeshda, played by Friederike Kempter, is Thiel’s hard-working assistant. She emigrated from Russia and is a distant relative of the Russian explorer Adam Johann von Krusenstern. Her first name Nadeshda is a reference to the ship that von Krusenstern sailed around the world. She moved from Russia to Münster with her parents while she was still a child. Nadeshda chose a career within the police force. After a one-year internship with the drug squad, she ended up in the homicide squad, headed by Frank Thiel. Thiel likes to encourage his assistant and values her greatly. He likes to keep her on her toes by letting her take the lead in smaller investigations. She is promoted from a detective-in-training to detective in the episode "Erkläre Chimäre".

Herbert Thiel

Claus Dieter Clausnitzer (Herbert Thiel)

Herbert Thiel is the father of Frank Thiel and the reason for Frank’s move to Münster. Herbert was part of one of the revolutionary social movements in the late 1960's and never managed to shed his revolutionary mindset. He works as an independent taxi driver, which leaves him with enough money to pay the constantly needed repairs for his car. But beyond these repairs he seems to suffer from a constant shortage of money. As a secondary income he started to grow marijuana. Aside from consuming it himself, he sells to university students in Munster. It is often the case that whenever his son has to depend on Herbert’s help, he is either high or his car breaks down. He often gets entwined with his son’s cases, by either finding a body or being a suspect himself.

Wilhelmine Klemm

Wilhelmine Klemm, portayed by Mechtgild Großmann, is the attorney of Münster. She is a notorious chain smoker, who consistently ignores the smoking ban in public buildings. She knows a lot of VIPs in Münster and considers herself one too. She views Thiel as a redneck who always unjustly suspects the dignitaries. She often appears in Thiel's office without invitation to get an update on his ongoing cases, which usually annoys the detective. Sometimes she even comes to a crime scene in high heels if the situation requires it. Normally her conclusions are wrong, which exacerbates Thiel but also makes his success seem more respectable.

The character's name can be understood as an allusion to the chemist Wilhelm Klemm, who taught in Münster. A street named after him can be found near the Institute of Forensic Medicine.

Critical response

Although Münster is one of the most popular Tatort series, it is often labelled as slapstick comedy. In regards to these accusations, actor Axel Prahl told a newspaper: “Well, finding the right balance is an art form that nobody has mastered yet. While one viewer asks for more comedy, another one says that there is too much of it.”

Other German actors have different opinions on this subject as well. Wotan Wilke Möhring has great regard for the actors playing Thiel and Boerne and praises the humor and levity of Tatort Münster. Actress Bjarne Mädel on the other hand said: "I like watching the good work of my colleagues Jan Josef Liefers and Axel Prahl, but the jokes have become predictable and overused.”

Spin-Off series

In 2009 the German television channel Norddeutscher Rundfunk produced a show called Zwei Kommissare auf Spurensuche. Axel Prahl and Jan Josef Liefers slipped into their roles, Thiel and professor Boerne, but kept their real names. In 5 episodes they wandered through Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (east coast, Kühlungsborn, Usedom, Rügen, Fischland-Darß-Zingst, Lake Schwerin), interacting with the locals while having their typical quarrels, well known from Tatort Münster.^[7]

Literatur

• Andreas Blödorn: Raum als Metapher. Exemplarisches und Exzentrisches am Beispiel des Münster-Tatort. In: Christian Hißnauer, Stefan Scherer, Claudia Stockinger (Hrsg.): Zwischen Serie und Werk: Fernseh- und Gesellschaftsgeschichte im „Tatort“. Bielefeld 2014, S. 259–281.
• Matthias Dell: „Herrlich inkorrekt“. Die Thiel-Boerne-Tatorte. Bertz + Fischer Verlag, Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-86505-709-9.

References

External links

• Thiel und Boerne in DasErste.de
• Tatort Münster in Tatort-Fans.de
• Gregor Tholl: Warum Thiel und Boerne so erfolgreich sind. In: Stern. 22. September 2014
• IHK Ehrenpreis für Tatort Münster bei Tatort-Muenster-Fanseite.de